Reality Crisis

Selina's time in this newly, relocated part of the world had been short. She hadnt yet ventured from the house she had to herself to explore for fear of not knowing what was out there. In Sanctuary there had been a protective wall around them to keep things out. And now there was nothing here to separate them from what was unknown. The Cat really didn't care too much for those odds. Especially considering her power and skills were limited in this world. She only had guns and swords to keep herself safe, and even then who said anything out beyond here could even die by those things?

Those snow dinosaurs had. They had gotten lucky, but what else might pop up unannounced and try to eat all of them? Selina wasn't too keen on waiting around to find out.

That and she was going a bit stir crazy in the house by herself. In Gotham she at least had a circle of people to go to if she needed company, The Bat included, but here she was more or less on her own. Since Jonathan was gone Selina found herself to hold a void she didn't know she had been capable of possessing. And she wasn't used to that.

Usually she got what she wanted with little to no effort but it was different here. She couldn't stand it either.

Selina sighed heavily and stood facing the outside, her back to the city. Her blue eyes swept the area around and her ears were unable to pick up anything out of the ordinary. At one hip settled the holster for a gun, and another was wrapped around the upper thigh of the opposite side. Her trusty whip was curled around her waist, and she stood there impatiently with her hands on her hips, waiting for anyone else whom might be out and about, either joining in the patrol or simply out wandering.

Company was company. She wasn't going to be too picky at this point. Even Dinah would do as far as ideal for conversation. Of course she would've preferred the Bat, but she would take what she could get.

The entire group was halfway through their journey across the wilds when all hell broke loose, in a quite literal fashion. The temperature dropped quickly and snow started to fall at an alarming rate. On one end of the caravan, reality burst at the seams.

One of the trucks disappeared into the hole and the rest of the vehicles just barely stopped short. The ground started to vibrate and suddenly a loud roar could be heard nearby. A gigantic white mass moved from the direction of the hole in reality and started stomping around the caravan. Meanwhile, mounds of snow started forming into even more creatures that converged on the group and their supply trucks.

The largest of the creatures roared again, revealing a full set of snow-white teeth. The mounds of snow formed into dinosaurs that were about half the size of the largest dinosaur, ranging from the large Tyrannosaurus Rex formed out of snow to the smaller and faster Velociraptors.

A few screams rose up from the group below as people started to run in an attempt to avoid finding out if snow-dinosaurs could and would ingest them.

OOC: Just a little holiday crack!plot for you. Join in, create subthreads, and enjoy!

Most people didn't return to the building after the dragon started using the roof for a bed. Which meant that Sam had no way of knowing where his wife, his brother, or Cas were. Buildings and people had disappeared. Entire chunks of the city that had been a safe haven for them. It didn't sit well and he was fighting off panic as he looked.

He couldn't help but think that things had been too good before this had happened. Perhaps he'd gotten complacent. Perhaps he'd forgotten who he was for a little while. Forgotten that Winchesters weren't supposed to get happy endings. Particularly not the Winchester who had brought on the apocalypse and done so many things that were unconscionable. It didn't matter what his original intentions had been. As he'd once told Dean, it wasn't the road to Heaven that was paved with good intentions.

He finally decided to check some of the likely haunts for Fred and Dean, starting with the garage. If his brother was anywhere, it would be making sure that the Impala hadn't been swallowed up by one of the holes in reality.

Sam didn't really get much of a 'honeymoon' with Fred. It was hard to rest when people needed help outside their little apartment. His days were spent helping with repairs around the city and his evenings were spent patrolling the outside of the wall for a bit before turning in. Maybe if he was lucky, he would catch some time while he and Fred were both awake and unharmed some nights. Not enough nights, but he was trying to carve out a little time for the two of them as he could.

When his nightly patrol ran into a group of Netvors, Sam had a moment where he wondered how much time, if any, there would be after patrol tonight. Maybe it was stupid to go out on his own, but Dean was busy with his own things and there was a part of Sam that felt the need to do this sort of penance for all the mistakes he'd made in the past, for all of the steps he'd taken toward the apocalypse back home.

Fortunately, he had a machete and it was currently in full swing as he lopped at heads of the closest Netvors.

"Well, that was unexpected."

Her voice was muted, emerging from the suit's speakers. River lifted the faceguard in order to take a better look around. This certainly wasn't the Library. But that wasn't the upsetting part. Anita, Proper Dave, Other Dave, even Lux and Miss Evangelista. They were gone. She was alone, on a strange planet.

She checked the scans going on within the suit. Compatible air, similar to Earth normal. Though the vegetation was not of Earth. Not from any time she knew, and she'd visited quite often. River unhooked the protective shield from the suit and took a breath. Late summer, warm day, chance of rain later. Maybe 30% chance.

She checked the scans again. Signs of life to the southeast. Her brow furrowed. "What's going on here?" she murmured, puzzling over the readings. A city of some sort, but very rudimentary structures. Ruins, to be more accurate. And one life sign drawing much closer.

She slid off the strap that held her sonic blaster in place, not drawing the weapon, but making certain it was accessible.

Thankfully nothing came of the rustling. Fred would never say it, but she certainly thought it: something had been out there, but it seemed to be respectful of the moment. At least that moment anyway. No one stuck around to see if there was really something to fight.

Fred didn't force anyone to come to the party the brief yet very important ceremony - important to her anyway. She did mention that everyone was invited to come to a small reception back in the small town. Belia had been nice enough to give some local wine she'd been keeping; she understood as much as anyone that a wedding was a step in healing, even if it was a wedding among the Chosen. Dean had found a few bottles of hooch that wouldn't kill anyone's stomach, probably.

Fred hadn't mentioned that the card with the bottles of wine had also said something about the future, heavily implying children. While she thought Sam would have beautiful children, she wasn't ready for whatever large creature he would spawn inside her. The thought about it actually made her laugh and wince; she knew a good bit of his past after all.

She'd gotten a few donations of food and sweets to fill the stomachs of any guests. She didn't mind if anyone came from off the street. She'd even found a stringed instrument that looked like a guitar and someone to play it! So, it wasn't overly fancy or big, but it would do.

Now all the party needed was party people. She hoped people came and enjoyed themselves.

Back home, weddings might have taken months of planning and putting things together. Sam didn't much care for the idea of waiting. Not in a world that could just as easily rain death on you at a moment's notice. He loved Fred and he wanted to marry her.

She'd asked for a wedding in the fairy forest and while Sam didn't love that idea, she had a point about getting married somewhere that still looked alive and mostly untouched by the devastation that was everywhere you looked in this world.

They weren't too far in the forest. Just far enough in that they couldn't see the ruins, but not so far that they were in the very heart of faerie territory.

Sam had managed to scrounge up clean clothes that were nicer than his every day clothes. He hadn't found a suit, but he did have a nice button-up shirt, a jacket, and some slacks. Some of the locals had been excited to give clothes that had long since been forgotten in closets because they weren't practical. Weddings were a happy occasion and die Festung didn't get to see enough happiness.

Sam thought it was nice that even amidst all of the destruction, life still went on. That was why this day was important. Even if legal marriages weren't a thing anymore. Even if this was a symbolic ceremony, it was still important.

He loved Fred and he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Even if the rest of his life was only a few more days or years, and even if it might be decades. He thought that it was important to stop and acknowledge that and celebrate it. Because this was the sort of thing that made it all worth fighting for.

Sam tugged at his collar as he stood in between Dean and Cas and waited for Fred to make her appearance. There was a little case of nerves as he worried that maybe the bride would have second thoughts and wouldn't show. He did his best to dismiss that paranoia and watched the small opening in the trees for any sign of his future bride.

Sam still hadn't figured out what had caused Fred's outburst. Though it was starting to become more clear as stories filtered in about other people going completely off the rails. Not that he'd say that to her, but he'd heard a few things about people acting completely out of character. Still, he was treading lightly and didn't want to be the one to bring up the wedding as he waited around for Fred to wake up. She'd fainted in the middle of reaming him out over... well, truthfully he wasn't even sure what she'd been so angry about at the moment.

Maybe it was nerves but maybe it was whatever had affected the others.

Sam paced beside Fred's bed while he waited for her to awake. He was as worried about the personality shift and what else it could mean as he was about her health at the moment. Anything that could affect someone's personality like that couldn't be good for you.

Though if by some chance, it was just wedding-related nerves? Well, he supposed that the sooner they got the wedding part over with, the better. Not that he'd voice that to her of course.

The earthquake had been over for days. die Festung was in poor shape, and Sam was busy helping with the clean-up. But slowly, things started to look a little better. Slowly, it got to a point where his mind could turn to other things.

He didn't want a long engagement. Especially with this most recent reminder of their mortality. If Fred, Dean, and Cas agreed, he'd marry Fred tomorrow if he could. He respected that she might want more of a ceremony than one could throw together in a day, maybe. Maybe not, since she didn't seem the girly girl type when it came to those things.

Truthfully, the only thing Sam cared about was who he was marrying and having his brother at his side as he did so. All other details were up to Fred.

After a long day of assisting in rebuilding the wall, he sought her out. She'd been off helping out as well of course. They all had their own skillsets and ways to contribute after this latest disaster. But it was dinner time now, which meant that he was looking for his fiancee.

Sam had spent the last couple of weeks sneaking into the lab when Fred wasn't in there to work with metal on a ring for her. He knew that she probably wasn't the jewelry type, but he also wanted to do that tradition for her. He wanted something tangible for her to wear.

So when the ring was finished, Sam headed back to the Chosen building as he mentally tried to figure out how best to present the ring to his fiancee.

Fiancee. There was a word that he never would have thought he'd have a reason to use.

Sam didn't have too long to wander down that line of thinking as he reached the door to the building and the ground started to shake. The building quivered and then the shaking became more violent. The ring that was in his pocket forgotten, Sam took off at a sprint up the stairs.

"Fred?" He shouted. "Dean? Cas?"

He needed to make sure that they were all okay. And he was pretty sure that getting out of the building or at least finding somewhere that was safer was the best thing to do right now.

Castiel knelt on the curbside, coat splayed around himself, squinting intently at a bug crawling slowly across the sidewalk. He'd seen bugs before, of course, but this one seemed to be a bit deformed, with a large growth on one side that made it difficult to walk. Castiel had been watching the bug for a few days, now, having found it in the forest on one of his makeshift pilgramages.

The growth had been smaller then, but it still impeded the bug's ability to take care of itself. So Castiel had brought it here, into the city, and laid it out near the grass. Still it had come over this way, away from the environment that should have offered it shelter.

He tilted his head, trying to work out just what would make a sick insect run around in the open daylight.

Selina had been officially kicked out of the city of die Festung. She had never been kicks four of any place in her life. It was frustrating but she hasn't exactly been expecting the welcome wagon when she set out with the idea of starting a new colony burned into the forefront of her mind. She was determined, always had been, but she was exactly where she had been before she reached the city itself. She had basically made a sidestep instead of moving forward. Was creating a new colony worth the trouble? Perhaps things were better left as they were. She was now aware of the two colonies of people, ones in the smaller Sanctuary and now the bigger die Festung. She wondered if it was even worth the risk of competing blindly against Belia. Not that she saw the other woman as competition exactly.

Selina wondered what Jonathan would think if she went back to the hut they shared and told him about the city she'd found. Would he want to move? Belia had allowed Selina a return on the basis that she would be residing within the walls. Selina had a lot of thinking to do. She would stay on track for now and focus on the task at hand. Getting to know the land. At least if she knew the layout she could weigh her options. All of her options seemed to be pretty heavy. And she still felt so out of place. Would a city change that for her? She had skills that were completely useless. Her life was about stealth, stealing and getting away with whatever she wanted. Here it seemed that there wasn't anything of value to take. Whichever rendered her useless and she hated feeing like she had no purpose.

She leaned against the wall just outside of the gate of die Festung, not yet ready to make up her mind on what she ultimately would do. She knew she would have to go back to Jonathan at some point. That was only fair. Especially if she decided to relocate. She wanted to give him the option to come with her. If he wouldn't, then that was fine. She would do it alone. That was how she liked things anyway. Other people tended to complicate things.

She breathed out, arms folded together across her chest as she pressed her back against the weathered outer wall. Her chin was tilted upward slightly, so her eyes could look into the sky. Having options in a place like this was strange. But she had to focus. It was focus and have something to live for, or waste away into nothing. And she wasn't about to do that any time soon.

Sam was finally back on his feet. It was a good feeling, even if there was a small part of him that had enjoyed having Fred nurse him back to health. The much bigger part of him that always needed to be moving and contributing-that part was relieved to be back up and about.

Besides, Sam had news to share. Dean had been over to visit but Sam hadn't wanted to tell him in front of Fred. It wasn't that he was embarrassed so much as he wanted to protect her from whatever reaction his older brother might have at first. He thought that Dean would be happy in the long run, but his knee-jerk reaction might be less happy.

Sam wanted to start working on a ring for her. He knew that she might say that she didn't care, but he really did want to do that for her. The trouble was just finding time in the lab when Fred wasn't there. He didn't want to give her the chance to say no to having an engagement ring.

Once he was upright, he headed up to Dean's apartment with a bottle in his hand (one of the bottles he'd managed to spirit away from the stash of 'good stuff' in the basement) and knocked on the door.

Fred was starting to wonder if this was how it was always going to be. She would worry about the hunter boyfriend, and he would come back in bits and pieces. Some part of her thought it was romantic, but another small part wondered if maybe there was a better way to go about all this. There had to be, maybe one that didn’t end up with her boyfriend covered in his own blood. Other people’s blood as long as it wasn’t family or friends was okay with her, sort of.

She’d paced back and forth in the lobby, never roaming too far, just in case. Then when they showed up, she'd smiled. Dean had told her about Aidan, a living Aidan, or an undead one who wasn't dust. Well, that was a step in the right direction - if Aidan had been to help. She had helped get Sam back to their apartment, and she had let Dean play the part of big brother, for a little while anyway; she’d needed to go to the gate to talk to Aidan. Aidan told her what she needed to know, and she'd do her best to follow his directions because he was a proper nurse after all. Soon, she returned to shove Dean out, with the promise that she'd let him visit again soon; Dean had to get rest as much as Sam did.

Fred sat quietly beside the bed as Sam rested. They were lucky that Aidan had been around, for more reasons than one apparently. She had managed to find a comfortable spot, curled up on the chair. Her hand rested near Sam’s, and she’d slipped into a doze. She would be there when he woke up. She had a bottle of water and crackers nearby. See? She could look after a hunter.

( ----- )

(Continued from here.)

"Yeah, their mom, mother," Dean turned just in time to see one thing he never wanted to see again. Certainly not this way. Not as it took his little brother off. He moved quickly to pick up the flare gun, but he knew the damn beast moved too quickly for a shot to work. He needed to get it in its hole. Of course, knowing this didn't help anything. He also knew what Sam would see and feel. He knew what would happen back in the Wendigo's lair, cave, whatever the hell it would be call.

Calling for Castiel wasn't a bad idea at the moment, but what could the angel do? Plus, Dean and Sam had faced this thing down before. He could find it and kill it. He could handle it on his own. He would find his missing brother.

There was a small nagging at the back of his head. It told him that he couldn't do this. He couldn't save Sam; this was how he lost his little brother. This was why those little girls were named after dead men. This had to be it. This was when he lost the last of his blood relatives.

"Son of a bitch." The hunter growled, set his shoulders, and started in the direction he believed the Wendigo would go. There were rumors of large buildings with adequate basements. By now, the places probably resembled caves. That or there were some caves, underground, in the forest. Either way, he'd find Sam, and he'd save him. Sam would get to know his nieces, dammit.

Belia had a lot on her mind these days. Then again, that was normal for her, wasn't it? Whatever the case, things had gotten worse over the last year. The most recent concern was the blackouts that seemed to have occurred in all of her people. Some saw flashes of what seemed like the future. Others saw nothing at all. Belia had been one of those to see nothing. She had her suspicions about what that could mean, and they didn't make her happy. In fact, she was even more prickly these days than usual. She hadn't told anyone. What good would it do? If her suspicions were right, sharing that information could potentially cause a panic. She was angry at the prospect because her work here wasn't done. She hadn't done all that she could for her people. She didn't know what would become of them if she fell, and that simply made her want to lash out.

As it was, there were plenty of other things to distract her from worrying about something that could or come to pass. Her main concern at the moment were the strange disappearances happening outside of the walls. Her people had a lot of whispered rumors about what the creature looked like. About its speed and size. Some were more fantastic than others.

Belia had no trouble believing that some of the fantastic accounts were true. She even had her guesses as to what it might be. Which meant that she also had an idea of which of her Chosen would be able to put the creature down for good.

She called her guards and requested that they bring her the Winchesters. She told them to ask nicely, since she knew how stubborn the boys could be. She even told them to inform the brothers that their help was needed with something. She didn't give any further information, save to tell them that lives were at stake.

Once her guards had been dispatched, then she settled in to wait for the two hunters to make an appearance.

Fred had let Sam sleep, and she had every intention of speaking with Dean. Every single intention to give that hard headed jerk a piece of her mind. Only that didn't happen. Instead, she cleaned up the apartment downstairs, putting things away. She didn't stay there long though; she needed to do something productive that didn't remind her of failing. Failing in putting her mind to it.

She flopped again at the workbench. The room was warmer now that she'd set up a heater in the corner; it was a simple burning stove with a few Fredly additions to make it more the whole place, and she'd managed to swing some nice smelling wood to burn. There she sat staring at the most recent victim of her curiosity.

"Don't worry, I'll make you better." That was the plan, only that was not what happened.

( She woke... )

Sam's frustration with how stubborn Dean could be carried him up to the seventh floor and to the door of the studio apartment that he'd been calling home these days. He let himself in and stopped at the sight of several boxes on the ground.

"Fred?" Sam called out, eyes scanning the small space for his girlfriend. Or at least, he hoped that she was still his girlfriend and wasn't moving out without telling him.

He moved over to the refrigerator and searched for something frozen-ice, food, whatever. He found a few chips of ice and then found a towel to wrap them in.

Sam spent the entire way back from New Troy trying to figure out what to say to Dean about Aidan. There was a very good chance that this talk was not going to go well, but Sam had to be careful that it didn't give Dean too much indication of where Aidan was. He really wanted to keep his brother away from New Troy for reasons that went beyond Aidan's safety.

The one thing that gave him hope was that he believed that deep down, Dean didn't really want to see Aidan dead. Maybe deep, deep down. He was pretty sure that there were some death wishes due to what Aidan was and the lies that had been told but really, if Dean had wanted Aidan dead, the vampire would be already. Would have been as soon as he'd revealed himself.

Once he was back in die Festung, Sam didn't waste any time in seeking out his brother. There was always the chance that Dean had decided to go hunting on his own since Sam had disappeared. Time was short and the sooner he had this conversation, the better.

Sam started with Dean's apartment, though he would move on to the garage and the bars if the older Winchester wasn't home. He knew his brother's usual haunts after all.

Sam had received Dean's note which just brought more urgency to getting his own questions answered. He could appreciate his brother's need to end things, but he had to know the full story. He couldn't just let Dean kill the best friend he'd had in a long while-possibly ever-until Sam had made good and sure that Aidan really was simply a monster.

Sam left Dean a note of his own that said that he had one thing to take care of and then they could go hunting. He just hoped that the older Winchester would wait. Or at the very least, Sam hoped that he could find Aidan first.

He considered where a vampire on the run might go and while Sanctuary was closer, Sam thought that New Troy was more likely. It would be a lot easier to hide what he was, if he was trying to hide, in a place that had a larger population. And if he was simply looking for a food source, it would be a lot easier to find that too.

Despite the fact that this was a fact-finding mission, Sam still armed himself to the hilt. Since it was likely that vampires in this world could be different, he had the gamut of weapons that might work. From stakes and garlic to a machete and of course the typical gun with salt rounds and gun with silver rounds.

He was ready for the worst case scenario that involved things going the wrong way, but he was hoping that they didn't. He'd seen vampires before who were determined to fight their nature, who didn't want to hurt. If Aidan was that sort, then maybe Sam could convince Dean to leave him alone.

He made it to New Troy without incident and started to ask around. He was more than a little concerned at the fact that everyone directed him to the hospital. While it wasn't news that Aidan was a nurse, Sam did see it in a different light now that he realized that Aidan was a vampire working around people who were more helpless than usual. He found the hospital after getting directions and stepped into the waiting room, eyes searching for any sign of Aidan.